Doing Something about Somalia

 

The events unfolding far away in Somalia might, at first sight, seem to be of little importance to our own country. Unfortunately, with Somalia being our single largest 'supplier' of illegal immigrants, we are likely to pay our fair share of the price for that country's disasters.

I hope and pray that the Maltese authorities are analyzing the situation in detail and will do their utmost to push the EU into playing an active role in helping bring stability to that country and in helping Kenya take as many refugees as possible.

Any arrangement that brings about some stability and allows Somalis to build better lives at home would be sufficient from Malta's point of view. Our limited resources, and our very limited political capital in Europe should be spent on goals such as this one, along with the equally-important issue of sea patrols, where our Foreign Ministry and the Government in general seem to be doing a good job in difficult circumstances. Fuzzier and less realistic goals, such as that of singlehandedly bringing about peace in the Middle East should be quietly shelved.